Taking the Faith to the Streets!
Shawn and I were blessed to be able to do some street evangelization this past Saturday. The downside is the only time we had was during the May meeting time. Several people have enquired about our group in the last few weeks and I hope they all attend the June meeting.
The first rule of street evangelization is to go where people are. We set up right outside the main entrance to Celebrate De Pere, on the Fox River Trail. The downside was we started fairly early so the foot traffic to the fair was low, but it was a beautiful day and the foot traffic on the trail was quite busy.
After about an hour a young man, Louis, approached us. He had a military style, desert camo, ruck sack on, so we assumed he was a desert war vet. We began talking to Louis and found out he had just started attending Our Lady of Lourdes, in West De Pere, occasionally. Louis stated he had not been back to church in a while and had not been to confession. After speaking to him about the beauty of confession, and knowing your sins are forgiven, Louis stated he wanted to do that. We told him to check with Our Lady of Lourdes' website for confession times, but Shawn also knew approximately when they were. Louis thanked us a lot, and wanted "one of everything." Louis expressed interest in learning how to reach out to others, like we were doing. Louis asked us to pray for him because "I have lots of hurts inside."
Please pause here and pray for Louis. We saw him later with a sign that read, "Remember your Vets."
A little while later a jogger, Charles, stopped. He was visiting from North Carolina where he attends a Bible College. He said he always wanted to ask a Catholic how someone gets 'saved'. As Catholics we can say we're "saved" provided we're in a state of grace. The process for an adult is quite simple: 1) Repent 2) Believe 3) Be Baptized. This explanation started a great conversation that led in many different directions: Why do Catholics call their priests "Father" when the Bible says "Call no man on this earth 'father'...(Mt. 23:9)?; Why do Catholics confess their sins to a priest since Christ is our only mediator between God and Man (1 Tim 2:5)?; Isn't immersion the only valid form of baptism? and
more.
This happens to be Fidei Defensor's sweet spot. We were happy to discuss all of these issues with him. However, even if we didn't know the answer to any of his questions, we had the pamphlets there to help. He took several pamphlets and probably would have talked to us all day - and we would have loved to talk to him all day - but his girlfriend pulled him away to continue jogging. We shook hands, told him we would pray for him and asked him to pray for us.
Finally we had Barbara, a Catholic from St. Paul. She was visiting her friend in the area. She said her friend stopped going to mass shortly after his wife died. Barbara said she has tried to talk to him about it, but he gets very angry about anything to do with religion. We talked to Barbara about suffering and the 'problem of evil', that is, why bad things happen to good people. Barbara, herself, is trying to be a faithful Catholic, goes to mass and goes to confession regularly. She's also a Viking's fan, but we forgave her for that. She was very happy to see us evangelizing out there. We encouraged her to look up the St. Paul Street Evangelization chapter in St. Paul and get connected there.
Besides these conversations we had many people waving, giving us 'thumbs up' and yelling, "God Bless you!" as they went by. As one of our wives said, you never know what seeds you might plant by just being visible and WILLING to share your faith. That witness alone speaks volumes.
Do you feel good reading these stories? Maybe you're being pulled by the Holy Spirit to join us! Does that thought scare you? Of course, the Devil doesn't want you to. But what does Jesus want us to do? "Preach the Gospel to all living creatures!" I invite you to join us and help spread the Gospel!
Fidei Defensor
Dedicated to teaching Catholics how to share their faith with kindness and respect.
A little while later a jogger, Charles, stopped. He was visiting from North Carolina where he attends a Bible College. He said he always wanted to ask a Catholic how someone gets 'saved'. As Catholics we can say we're "saved" provided we're in a state of grace. The process for an adult is quite simple: 1) Repent 2) Believe 3) Be Baptized. This explanation started a great conversation that led in many different directions: Why do Catholics call their priests "Father" when the Bible says "Call no man on this earth 'father'...(Mt. 23:9)?; Why do Catholics confess their sins to a priest since Christ is our only mediator between God and Man (1 Tim 2:5)?; Isn't immersion the only valid form of baptism? and
more.
This happens to be Fidei Defensor's sweet spot. We were happy to discuss all of these issues with him. However, even if we didn't know the answer to any of his questions, we had the pamphlets there to help. He took several pamphlets and probably would have talked to us all day - and we would have loved to talk to him all day - but his girlfriend pulled him away to continue jogging. We shook hands, told him we would pray for him and asked him to pray for us.
Finally we had Barbara, a Catholic from St. Paul. She was visiting her friend in the area. She said her friend stopped going to mass shortly after his wife died. Barbara said she has tried to talk to him about it, but he gets very angry about anything to do with religion. We talked to Barbara about suffering and the 'problem of evil', that is, why bad things happen to good people. Barbara, herself, is trying to be a faithful Catholic, goes to mass and goes to confession regularly. She's also a Viking's fan, but we forgave her for that. She was very happy to see us evangelizing out there. We encouraged her to look up the St. Paul Street Evangelization chapter in St. Paul and get connected there.
Besides these conversations we had many people waving, giving us 'thumbs up' and yelling, "God Bless you!" as they went by. As one of our wives said, you never know what seeds you might plant by just being visible and WILLING to share your faith. That witness alone speaks volumes.
Do you feel good reading these stories? Maybe you're being pulled by the Holy Spirit to join us! Does that thought scare you? Of course, the Devil doesn't want you to. But what does Jesus want us to do? "Preach the Gospel to all living creatures!" I invite you to join us and help spread the Gospel!
Fidei Defensor
Dedicated to teaching Catholics how to share their faith with kindness and respect.
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